Mem­bers of the Repub­lic of Fiji Mil­i­tary Forces are in New Cale­do­nia as part of the Croix du Sud (South­ern Cross) Multi­na­tional mil­i­tary ex­er­cise which starts to­day. The train­ing is con­ducted by the French Armed Forces in New Cale­do­nia (FANC).

This year, the multi­na­tional force con­sists of units from France, Aus­tralia, Canada, Chile, Fiji, Ja­pan, New Zealand, Pa­pua New Guinea, USA, UK, Tonga and Van­u­atu. Over 30 RFMF per­son­nel are in New Cale­do­nia plus the

RFNS Kula.

A state­ment by the FANC said: “This joint and multi­na­tional ex­er­cise takes place within France’s strate­gic pri­or­i­ties out­lined in the 2013 De­fence and Na­tional Se­cu­rity White Pa­per. “It aims at train­ing the FANC to plan and con­duct a hu­man­i­tar­ian aid and/or non-com­bat­ant evac­u­a­tion op­er­a­tion in the COMSUP area of re­spon­si­bil­ity (South-West Pacific), to­gether with al­lied means co­or­di­nated by the FANC (hu­man­i­tar­ian aid).”

The pro­gramme in­cludes:

Novem­ber 7- 11: train­ing and in­te­gra­tion of the units con­sti­tut­ing the force.